Eat, sleep, breathe, drink, Arsenal

Alexis was declared fit to start against Sunderland, possibly by himself! The Gunners showed two changes from the eleven that started at Stoke. Kieran Gibbs, as expected, came in for Laurent Koscielny with Nacho Montreal switching to the back three. Aaron Ramsey returned in place of Francis Coquelin. With Manchester City hosting West Brom it was important we secured the three points on offer.

The first statement of intent came when Aaron Ramsey and Olivier Giroud combined to give Alexis a shooting chance from the edge of the box but his sighter flew over the target. There followed early controversy when Giroud, attempting to protect himself from another fierce Alexis drive, was adjudged to have committed a handball which deflected the ball into the net.

Moments later Pickford twice reacted instinctively to deny Giroud at point-blank range. Next to try his luck was Hector Bellerin who sent an effort whistling narrowly over the bar with his left foot after cutting in from the right flank.

Alexis and Mesut Ozil tried to tee up Ramsey but the final ball was overhit and Pickford saved comfortably. A sign of the Arsenal’s early dominance was the sight of Rob Holding advancing to a shooting position only to see his effort blocked. Granit Xhaka was next to test Pickford’s hands but the in-demand young goalkeeper was equal to the effort. Not discouraged the Swiss international thumped another rasping drive just wide of the post.

We appealed in vain for penalties when Ramsey was tugged back trying to convert Giroud’s pass, then when Giroud himself claimed that Koné had held him down. The replays supported both claims. When Sunderland attempted a rare and rapid break Bellerin took a yellow card for a deliberate handball on the halfway line.

Just past the half-hour mark Cech sprinted out of his area to beat Defoe to a long ball. Back came Arsenal only for Alexis to mis-control a sliderule Ozil pass. Cech was called upon to save at his near post when Defoe sent Ndong clear through for Sunderland’s first shot of note. Ndong repaid the favour and Cech had to go full length to deny Defoe. Was that a warning to us to convert our clear dominance into a lead?

Giroud, attempting to create half a yard in the box, tumbled a little theatrically and appealed for a penalty in vain again. Without the benefit of a replay I thought in real time it probably wasn’t one. Xhaka’s third attempt on goal from a prodigious distance sailed over the bar. Bellerin galloped through in the inside-right channel but blasted his effort into the side-netting. One could sense the frustration growing in a far from full stadium.

An intricate build up involving Ozil, Bellerin and Ramsey ended with the latter’s effort being deflected for a corner from which Rob Holding’s free header went straight at Pickford. The half-time whistle brought to an end 45 minutes in which we had 18 shots to Sunderland’s 2 and 8 corners to Sunderland’s 1. How on earth was it 0-0?

The second-half did not start well. Monreal’s careless backpass had to be scrambled round the post by Cech at the cost of a free-kick that Xhaka did well to head over his own crossbar. Larsson’s scythe through the back of Ramsey went strangely unpunished. Ozil’s ball across the face of goal just evaded Ramsey and Alexis as we looked to up the tempo again.

When Larsson was tripped by Monreal the yellow card was found again, and brandished not only at Monreal but to Ozil too, presumably for pointing out Mr East’s inconsistency. Finally he showed the card to O’Shea for yet another foul on Ramsey. When they let him run Ramsey took the chance to shoot but again Pickford pulled off the save. Mustafi’s goal bound was scrambled away for yet another corner.

Ramsey again was clattered from behind by Cattermole who astonishingly went unpunished. From the free-kick Alexis hit the wall and claimed a handball similar to that awarded against Giroud in the first-half. No doing. The crowd tried to lift the team with a strong chorus of ‘Red Army’ but Sunderland were throttling the life out of the game.

A more direct approach saw Ozil just fail to get an effort away at full stretch in a one on one with Pickford. A couple of times Bellerin found space on the right but could not produce an accurate ball in. From a rare Rob Holding cross from deep Giroud’s glancing header from the penalty spot just cleared the far post.

As the clock ticked through 68 minutes Danny Welbeck came on for Ramsey who had gone down possibly with a recurring strain injury? Alex Iwobi replaced Kieran Gibbs at the same time and we switched to a flat back four.

Welbeck’s first shot brought a very good save from Pickford but the turning point was around the corner. Xhaka picked out the run from Ozil on the left and the German slid the ball into the path of Alexis who accepted the invitation to tap the ball in.

Arsenal 1-0 Sunderland

Alexis was denied twice by Pickford as well as a handball and an offside flag as the siege continued. Cattermole was hauled off before he was sent off to be replaced by Gooch. Giroud was denied another penalty claim much to the ire of the home crowd. Pickford’s wonderful night continued as he denied Xhaka’s placed effort, and followed that up with another brilliant save from Iwobi.

Sanchez was felled in the box by a tangle of legs with Ndong. I think to concede a penalty one of the Sunderland players would have had to carry out an unprovoked assault with a baseball bat! The Chilean got his revenge when he was presented with another tap-in as Pickford’s luck finally ran out.

Arsenal 2-0 Sunderland

With the points safe Arsenal pushed on with more verve. Welbeck fired wide of the far post before Theo Walcott was sent on for Giroud. Skhodran Mustafi’s header brought another excellent finger tip on to the bar by Pickford. Even Nacho Monreal saw a long range effort pass the far post. Walcott, perhaps rusty, failed to convert a great opportunity.

Borini’s overhead attempt at a consolation goal in the last of three added minutes summed up Sunderland’s night. So near, yet so far. The Arsenal were just grateful to have secured the three points and Sunday’s final game against Everton will have some meaning. We are relying on Middlesbrough sneaking at least a draw at Anfield, so mobile phones will be in evidence, for sure. I remember when it was radios!

Great report, especially given I’ve not seen anything apart from a clip of the first goal (which was simple but perfectly executed). All our best Wenger sides have had the killer ability to shift the play quickly and then capitalise ruthlessly and efficiently on the space we make for ourselves. Seeing that goal was a reminder of what we have failed to do so often in recent years (another sideways pass please) as well as that when we get it right it looks so bloody easy you wonder why we don’t just do it like that from minute 1.

Oh well. Good result. One more league win. One more cup win. Season over. Luvvly jubbly.

Sadly H i don’t think the mobile phones will be required for very long after kick off on Sunday.
That late goal conceded at Goodison in December denying us a point,is probably the only one i can think of that has cost us 4th place being in our own hands.
Our other defeats were by our own hand.
Let’s hope we treat the Europa league like the Capitol One Cup,and play our youngsters and fringe squad players.

Radios? I remember when it was two tin cans on the end of a piece of string running from Dundee to Aberdeen.

Good outcome tonight, for a while this had the look of a completely incomprehensible 0-0. I thought that Iwobi and Wellbeck’s introduction some much needed pace – perhaps because Sunderland legs were tiring.

Just returning from the match. I do have to say you made the first half seem a lot more exciting than the game I saw. An awful, inconsistent referee, ponderous movement from Giroud and a lack of confidence personified by Bellerin and Gibbs meant we needed to inject some pace. Iwobi did that well as did Danny Welbeck and we actually got two well- engineeed goals. There were more people missing around me than present.
Pickford was superb apart from very eccentric kicking. I’d certainly take him if we could sign him. I liked Holding again and I thought Xhaka and Ozil had moments of class. But it was a difficult watch for most of the game

Just on my way back from the game. I must say that I agree totally with TTG. Your report has managed to make the first half a great deal more interesting than the half I watched. The tedium resulted in attempting to recreate the best football version of the famous Johners cricket commentary when he uttered the immortal line, ” you join us here as the bowler’s Holding, the batsman’s Willey.” From block 4 we attempted to recreate our own version staring with “the defender’s Holding……. ” You get he drift. How we wished he had players like Dean Cox or Julian Dicks. No doubt it is something that will be continued but the best Arsenal one on the night was “the defender’s Holding, the keeper’s Seaman.” Very juvenile but it kept us awake.

The second half did not start much better but Chris, look away now. The game changed on one bit of world class magic from Ozil, right in front by of me. It was Ozil who had the ball on the wing. You could almost see his mind clicking through the gears as he later the ball off to Xhaka, before bending his run into the box. Thankfully Granit was on the same wavelength as he hit an inch perfect return. Ozil then cushions the ball on the half volley straight into the path of Alexis. A truly wonderful bit of play from the German

Even 1 down the mackems still wasted time. The second eased the nerves but we could really have done with a few more.

The ref was out of his depth. Pickford was their best player by a country mile. Holding again looked assured.

On to the weekend. We rode our luck this time last year. We could need considerably more this year.

Final word for the crowd. On the whole I thought they were great tonight. Loads of empty seats but those there did their club proud.

Kudos to the resident stalwarts in the bar,who fronted up for the game tonight.
Steve T/TTG and dear old Delia torn between the Opera and a cold half empty Ems, [can’t wait to hear who won out on the overlap ]
My sister was there with my nephew and my Brother.
Sadly with Sis 70 in Jan next year and with knackered knees and dodgy back,and with her boy who is a Black Cabbie,having his lunch eaten by Uber, it very much looks as though they won’t renew for next season.
So my brother looks like being the last link in an unbroken chain of Watermans regularly seeing the Arse live,stretching back to the 1940’s.

I thought Wenger showed his intransigence today tactically. He should have changed the team much earlier. Literally as soon as we did introduce Welbeck’s pace and Iwobi’s willingness to run at the defence we created much more. Giroud works ok as an impact sub or away from home but limits our attacking options at home.
Steve T described our first goal very well.Ozil did brilliantly twice and it was a goal befitting a much better game. The crowd were soooo patient and supportive but we weren’t anywhere near as effective as the stats suggested. Sunderland are awful.

A great tactical change when we finally reverted to a back 4 and scored 2 quick goals before Sunderland could readjust.

The first was indeed Özil at his best, Steve T, and I have never denied he has such skills. My plaint is that they’re few and far between because he’s a petulant prick who gives up the fight too easily. If he had half Ray Parlour’s commitment he could be up there with Messi and Ronaldo. Well, the next level down perhaps.

How Danny and Iwobi get on ahead of Theo who actually scores goals (second only to OG in goals per minute for us) continues to surprise. If it was speed that was needed he’s yards quicker than either of them. His after the Palace game comments must have infuriated AW cos he’s only played about 20 minutes since!

Too little too late, but at least we’re showing some intent. Pity w eshowed so little against the neighbours who can rightly claim to have denied us CL next season. Bah!

I hope Delia stayed for the finale of her comic opera, it would have been far more fun than Act One at the Ems, which had its comic moments courtesy of Nacho and a blinkered ref, but was otherwise a yawn.

It was never going to be an easy game after the weekend , Sunderland were so bad Moyes had to get a positive reaction from his players which he did compared to how they played against Swansea
Other than there GK who was inspired we could have had the 5 most supporters wanted

Pleased with the win, but a real shame that we couldn’t improve our goal difference between City. I thought our best hope came via Watford on the final day but that window now appears to be firmly shut.

Thanks for the report Guvna. Flight landed just before ko. Heard it on the radio driving home on the M4. Frustration followed by relief. However we do seem to have put in a shift. The lethargy of a few weeks ago thankfully seems a distant memory. We were the architects of our own misfortune during those aimless weeks. Having to rely on the likes of the Spammers and Boro is the consequence of losing our focus over several weeks. No-one is exempt from that charge. We should be better than that.

Pleased with the win and second half performance. Overall though that had the feel of a mid Eighties end of season dead rubber down the road at Highbury. Tho’ in my head they were always sunny at least.

Agree with Post 8 – if we had just battened down the hatches and taken a point at Goodison we would not now be at this impasse.

Oh and hats off to the Mackems keeper – a superb performance – he will surely still be at a Premier league team next season ?

I could tell there was going to be a few gaps in the crowd when I walked into the Tolly at 7pm and found myself with plenty of space to swing the proverbial cat. I was with an old mate, a Mackem complete with accent and nostalgia for Roker Park. It was clearly a night for tourists, when I parked up, I was greeted by a Belgian and his son who wanted to know where he could park safely close to the ground. When I advised nowhere close (I have a resident’s parking permit) his face fell a bit. When I came back to my car he had risked it and parked near me. He had a ticket, but no clamp or towing (result) and whether they can find him in Belgium who knows! In the pub a pair of lads from LA were looking forward to their night at an “EPL” game. They had good seats in the Clock End lower and I hope they enjoyed their night.

My mackem mate was greeted with respect and sympathy by the North Bank crowd of whom at least 50% of regulars were missing.

First half was utterly dire. “we’ve dragged you down to our level!” said the mackem, between fluent North Eastern abuses of Moyes.

Second half much better, Ozil sublime, Ramsey very good, went up a level when Danny and Iwobi came on. The lad Pickford completely outstanding in the Sunderland goals, although he can’t kick a football to save his life.

It also rained. Completely against the advice of the BBC website which said no rain until 1am. Bastards.

BOB at 28, right there, that…spot on. Going into a match like that with a central defence of Holding (debut) and Chambers was a disgrace and every indication that our manager cared not one jot about defence. COYG.

12 chances created in a single game by Mesut, wonder what would have happened if we had an Aguero or a Benzema in front of him!!!!!!! no disrespect to Giroud but Mesut would have been even more effective with a quicker and a better finisher. Even in the so called games where he goes missing, i am certain he would still have created a couple of chances and in games which are close, finishing those chances would mean a big difference.

I dont believe we will qualify to champions league, if we look at the 4 teams who would, they are probably better than us for the season, pool and we are probably close and city have had their moments but 5th just seem to be what we are. Arsene has come out and said whats the big deal in losing out but that is a contradiction of himself and what he has been saying.

FA cup finals is what i am so keen on and praying for us to win to round of a fairly average season. This would probably go down as our worst season in 20 years and for all i love Arsene, he should leave. I know not the topic to bring up again and again but honestly accountability is a factor if you have a poor season and if it means heads to roll, the boss is where it should start. Again i know he will stay and this may be no discussion but some of the players should not play for the club again and the boss needs to be given a royal send off.

don’t get 23
*scratches handsome head*
not only is it shit
it’s shite as well
.
not unlike other things in life though
perhaps i have been spoiled by you
over the years
and expect greatness every whipabout
.
on this occasion chris , however
sadly
you have shit in the nest and ruined my day

Funnily enough it could easily have been 7-0 last night. I found our usual inability to convert chances into goals frustrating but can’t say I was as depressed by it as most seem to have been.

Maybe I am just relieved to see us showing some fight again and it is definitely nice to have a fit and happy daughter with me in the stadium (fingers always crossed).

Delia, there was surely no competition between the Opera and the Rosenkavalier and The Emirates where there were no fewer than eleven Rosenkavaliers putting Sunderland to the sword.
They don’t mackem like they used to, you know.

Alexis does appear a far happier bunny than he did before Easter – I have a sneaking feeling he is going to stay. He will always lose the ball a bit – that is the nature of creative attacking players – but as long as we toughen up behind him, i can put up with that.

The money that top players demand now is, we all know, ridiculous but the club has to either play the game, or admit that it has given up trying to genuinely challenge for the top honours.

If they are looking for ideas on how to finance a deal for Alexis, I would suggest selling, or giving away if necessary, Jenkinson (sadly, as he is clearly but ubderstandably not in the manager’s thoughts), Debuchy and Sanogo, who never set foot on the pitch, and adding the resulting freed up £100k+ to the Chilean’s weekly wage packet.

The alternative is to sell him, try to find a relacement for c£60 million and then have to pay them the wages that Alexis is demanding anyway.

The match has been excellently covered by the Guvnor. My only other comment would be to register my great surprise that Chris thinks Feo should be playing a lot more ! I had no idea !

There is a reason Mr Walcott is finding himself on the bench a lot again these days. It was clearly exacerbated by his admission after the Crystal Palace game when, as captain, he explained the loss by saying that the players could tell, right from the kick off, that they wanted it more than us.

With probably three exceptions in eleven years, that type of surrender has been evident in every match he has played, in every tussle he has ‘fought’, and every pretence he has made at helping his full back to defend.

I know that is going to really annoy Chris snd Cynic but I have tried to cheer him on for all of those years and I am just tired of watching his half hearted posturing.

Just compare him to the 20 year old, very inexperienced Rob Holding, and the attitude he showed when the going got tough at Stoke on Saturday.

There is a future captain in that lad. An unbelievable signing at £2 million. Calm, composed, seems to love a tackle and doesn’t much mind if it comes to a fight.

Trev – I knew the minute I read Theo’s honest assessment, which actually matched what every honest Arsenal fan would have been thinking after that “performance”, that Wenger wouldn’t play him again unless he absolutely had to. I said at the time he had done himself no favours by being so honest, and it has turned out that way.

Ah well, he can go and score bags of goals for someone else next year, while we sit and wait for Wenger to bugger off and let this team progress.

“With probably three exceptions in eleven years, that type of surrender has been evident in every match he has played, in every tussle he has ‘fought’, and every pretence he has made at helping his full back to defend.”

Well said, Trev and sadly very true. I was delighted when I learned that Arsene had captured Theo’s signature. It has pretty much been downhill since then. The three exceptions I witnessed were:

1) When we murdered Chelski at Christmas (3-0?) and Theo and Cesc made and shared the goals

2) The ‘cruciate game’ vs Spuds when he was a mainspring, did his knee, was carried off past the Spuds then spent 18 months recovering.

3) Last season’s 3-0 home game vs Manure when he played out of his skin.

I expected “out of his skin” always. I never really got it. A rather sad waste of talent. I really wish it had been otherwise.

bt8b@70: Huddersfield v Arsenal has the ring of epic games in the far off distant past to it. In the 1930s, there were only a couple of games where there was more than a goal in it between the two teams. And we only lost once to them in the entire decade.

Reading has just been bought by a brother and sister team of property developers who the Premier League deemed too dodgy to buy Hull. Says it all, really.

You’re forgetting the 5-2 with Spurs, the draw with Barcelona when we were dead and buried until he came on and many other matches, but he’s a very easy target. If he can get stick for scoring his hundredth goal for the club, as he did, there’s no real point even attempting to have a half serious discussion.

A flawed player, but we have plenty of those. The sort who turn up and turn it on when we’re playing the worst team in the league but hide when they’re most needed.

” If he can get stick for scoring his hundredth goal for the club, as he did, there’s no real point even attempting to have a half serious discussion.”

Yes, he’s scored a hundred goals.

He’s also been here eleven years.

That’s an average of nine goals a season.

I know what you mean when you say he can score goals. I’m sure you know what I mean when I say so much of his contribution has been disappointing. As you say, there’s no point having the discussion. i’m not trying to make you agree with me. I’m just surprised that such a no-nonsense bloke is such a defender of a player who so rarely gets stuck in.

It’s all good, as a fan of the player he disappoints me perhaps more than you may think. Drives me up the wall. All I would say is that if people want to have a go at players, there are far more deserving targets.

All about opinions of course, but I’d get rid of Ozil tomorrow. It’s a bit odd that for weeks people in general have been saying that Ozil is a bottler, a waste of a shirt etc etc and yet he plays two decent games against two rubbish sides and he now, apparently, must be kept.

I just get the impression AW would rather make a point and leave him out than play his strongest side. After all, up to the Palace game Theo was slowly overhauling Alexis’s goal tally and I suspect that would not have helped AW in his negotiations to retain the Chilean. Which he probably won’t if a CL place eludes us. Which it might if we don’t score enough goals.

Trust me, Trev, I get as frustrated as anyone with Theo’s inconsistency, but there are pleyers you have to coddle more than others if you want the best out of them and Theo is one of them, along with both Alexis and Mesut btw. Not to mention the non-existent defensive efforts put in week after week by the latter two with minimal criticism compared to the scapegoat on the other wing.

For his own sake (as well as mine!) I hope Theo rejects playing under AW next year (assuming AW signs, if he hasn’t already) and seeks regular employment elsewhere.

There are only two main things to say about Theo. One, alas he’s an injury crock, presumably from being run into the ground in his early and mid teens, not the Arsenal’s fault. Two, his current manager fuc*ed him up by constantly changing his best position while, at the same time, never actually coaching him in the modern art of pressing. Auguero, often a genuine contender for third best player in the world, has simply been put on the bench until he gets coached into the complete package. Theo should leave but, like Wilshere, his body won’t hold up elsewhere either. Therefore, with a young family, I probably don’t blame him for sticking around. Simply picking up the crazy package Wenger erroneously awarded him while he consistently failed in his efforts to sign the likes of Suarez, Higuain, Draxler, Benzema, etc, etc (cos he was too stingy). Imagine what Pep would do to Theo on the training ground ? Or Conte or Klopp. Nah, like a lot of our deadwood, he’ll stick around. As for the current status quo with this erstwhile teacher’s pet, the player spoke out, something we all know is a complete no-no with our vain dictator. It’s a shame because the pace and the clinical finishing were all pretty special. However, we’ll still see plenty of him if Sanchez and Lucas Perez both defect, as I expect. The club will not turn down a 60 mill + offer for Sanchez with his contract virtually up and our own finances about to take a nasty turn for the worse. No way. Theo will be seen returning from his naughty step. COYG.

Perez is another example of AW’s dictatorial spite. Having been pressured into buying Perez when his miserliness failed to land a star striker he subsequently one-fingered club and supporters by simply never playing him.

The amazing thing is with our set-up Theo probably only earns about 20-25% less than Sanchez, who scores 3 times more goals, delivers 4 times more assists and would be worth at least 3 times more on the open market, even with a run down contract. Yes he loses the ball more than Theo, but at least he has it to lose in the first place, as per GSD above ! I meant Pep would kill him btw, not turn him into a superstar overnight !

Seems a bit late to comment on Tuesday’s game as you have moved on to Feo, a perfectly charming young man but a very weak competitor. I will never forgive him for hurdling out of a challenge last season on my visit to Sunderland.

Young Pickford is a star in the making along with Rob Holding who impresses every time I see him. It would be nice to see them both at the Ems but AW has ruled out buying another keeper.

I’m with Trev regarding Alexis’ future. He did look much happier at Stoke when he left the pitch and I agree we could make savings on the dead wood and pay him what he wants even if the sums involved make you wince.

See you all for the final show down at the Ems on Sunday, we will need to play much better than Tuesday .The fans deserve a real performance from our over indulged “stars”.

A few weeks back on this forum all were after Sanchez for being selfish! and playing for himself.
Sanchez owes this club nothing. He is the only shining light in this mess from top to bottom.
He delivers in games where we have no hope (most).
Now on to Walcott. He has scored 19 goals this season inc 10 in league and 4 in CL.
For a winger that’s pretty awesome by Arsenal standard. Of course he has been complacent and the interview didn’t help but who chose him for the Captain?
Who trained him to be a captain and a leader? Tope players are sent to courses on giving interview to media. Does the boss believe in leaders????
He joined us from Southampton with a great potential. Within a few weeks, his goals scored also seemed Henry-esque. Soon after Henry left for Barcelona.
he was promised he would train and learn from henry yet during crucial learning phase that promise was taken away.
How much has he been pushed? if the manager aims only for the 4th and anything else is a bonus what have players got to aim at?
We haven’t had a player names best in Pl for a good while and the reasons are clear our player development plans are not good enough!
All I am saying is please be balanced and understand the reasons rather than berate a player!

“Delivers in games where we have no hope”. In which games does Arsenal Football Club have no hope ?

“He was promised he would train and learn from henry”. Was he ?

“Of course he has been complacent”. Oh, that’s ok then. But how do you know he’s been complacent ?

“Our development plans are not good enough”. They seemed ok for Cesc Fabregas, Patrick Vieira when he was 19, Ashley Cole before we all know what happened to him, a young RvP (see Ashley Cole), Thierry Henry developed from an under-utilised winger into rhe best striker in the world ……. Maybe some of them just didn’t have the level of talent required to make the grade.

No player should be criticised for not being good enough. They do not bring themselves to the club or put themselves in the team.
My beef with Theo is already explained @54 above and perfectly expanded by BtM @72. It is not unreasoned “berating”, and augmanted by Delia @101.

We are allowed to disagree, that’s fine.

But let’s not justify it by claiming access to the workings of people’s minds and conversations they may never have had.

If I am a shitpipe, Holic will indeed delete my @125 which he is perfectly entitled to do.

They’re kind of long. Definitely wider at one end. And there are these unidentifiable thingummies coming out the ends. And sometimes they move. Hmm. Hold on- i’m getting there. They’ve got hair on them. Not loads, but definitely some. And they’re always fairly close to me.

It’s the extremes that get aimed at Theo I take issue with, criticisms that could equally be said of others but rarely are – non-existent defending by Alexis and Mesut for example.

And now another example … Scg saying Sanchez scores 3 times as many goals. In fact, not long ago Alexis had scored 22 goals in all matches, Theo 19. And Theo had been closing the gap in the month prior, despite having played the equivalent of 11 games less than our ‘world class’ striker. Since then Theo has sat out all but a few minutes as a sub while Sanchez has stretched his advantage.

The problem is that neither Theo or Alexis are actually strikers. If we had an RVP, or an Henry for example then can you even start to imagine how we might have done??? A top class striker with the goals and assists of both Theo and Alexis, and who knows what would have happened?

He’d never buy such a striker and certainly never play “RVP” with Sanchez and Walcott, because he’d have to find a place for Giroud. We were at our very best with Sanchez through the middle and Giroud well out of the picture.

As soon as Sanchez was shifted, in part to find a role for Giroud, we fell to bits.

IMO.

It’s very odd that Wenger signed Walcott, bigging him up as a striker of the future, but never played him there. Ever. Until forced to, when he wanted him to sign a contract. Then he made a reasonable fist of it, Wenger actually said in an interview something along the lines of “I always said he would be a striker, didn’t you believe it?” as if it was some masterplan, but he never stayed long in the role. So he gets shifted back wide, still scores goals but is almost the first out every time there’s a change.

Sanchez plays up the middle and I’m sure Wenger said he had said he wanted to play there. It works brilliantly and we’re really clicking until we hit a slightly bumpy patch, Giroud gets minutes as sub, scores a couple of times and almost immediately is back in favour, Sanchez is shifted back wide and Wenger says the other week that he wanted to play wide.

Then we realise that, actually… we don’t have a decent striker at the club at all. Form falls off a cliff, we have about four months where we just don’t function at all going forward.

I do not think he has made best use of the players at his disposal and you can talk all you like about “bad” players and loss of form, or bad attitude (because we’ve seen that in spades from our so-called best players) bt we have been suffering from an erratic selection and a manager who, it seems to me, doesn’t really know his best eleven nor where to play them if he did anyway.

Jaysus CBA, you should get 4 quid per post from our Irish Tourist Board as well as 4 quid from Holic ! Chris, I wasn’t overly studious on the stats there and I now accept Sanchez only scores twice as many goals per game, over the long term, than Theo. However I underclubbed on the assists estimate as I see Theo only has two assists in all competitions this year. TWO ! That’s crap. Cynic, your interesting post seems to suggest our habitual collapse this year was down to poor finishing. I have to disagree. It was simply down to utterly pathetic defending. In fact, Alexis, Giroud, Theo and Ozil have all between them been pretty damned effective at putting the ball in the back of the old onion bag, Sanchez especially of course. Nevertheless, Steve’s point is well made in that Wenger never managed to secure a real out and out finisher after RVP. Shame on him, given the coffers have been overflowing for the last 5 years.

Trev
I’ve been away but it seems your daughter is in better health. I’m delighted to hear this .
I’m late to the Walcott debate. I think he has been better this season but it’s ridiculous to make him captain. He really doesn’t have the right stuff for this job. He’s wildly overpaid …but he does play better against big teams than most of our players and I think his appetite for the big occasion might cause Chelsea trouble. His pace is likely to be a more potent weapon than Giroud’s ponderous prancing. Welbeck will probably play instead of both of them.
Nice to hear Kroenke is coming to the CupFinal..I hope it hasn’t proved inconvenient for his schedule . He must remember to put on the best syrup as he will be in the Royal Box.

I wonder if the window licker taking
the lead as top scorer will motivate
Lukaku for the last game.
There must be a bonus in his contract
for finishing top scorer.
Not to worry though, I’m sure our
defensive nous and all round soundness
will see us through.

On the earlier topic, I can’t blame
our attack or defence for this season.
We’re just brittle, the hat hits the
floor and our bottle goes. For several
weeks too, I can’t understand it but
it seems we’ve only 2 settings.
Bullish or bollocks.

I would contend that where most teams build from the back, our entire game depends on how well we attack, so if we’re failing in that area, we are in trouble.

Far from being on apart from poor finishing, as opined above, we went through a long phase where we weren’t creating anything at all in games, and those without a selective memory will remember that complete failure to make chances, which lasted for a good long stretch of games.

Cynic, I think that’s what sets champion teams apart. Attacks won’t operate at 100% all season as strikers run hot and cold, or at least not quite so hot. That’s when you must grind out the 0-0s, 1-1s and narrow 1-0s, true old fashioned Arsenal style. It’s how Chelsea grind their way to titles and it’s how Leicester did too. As far as I’m concerned Wenger can yank at his handbrake all day long. It’s worked last few weeks. Coyg.

I never thought I would say this but I hope Usmanov succeeds in buying from Kroenke. I think he is far from the traditions of the club, but that Arsenal , as a football club will prosper under his ownership far more than they are under Kroenke. Why, Usmanov will actually come to the matches and know the names of the players and the object of the game.
I suspect he might well keep Wenger but would only retain Gazidis if he had enabled him to take control but that Wenger would be much more accountable. I also think we could expect trophy signings to cement the Uzbek’s popularity.
So he’s not ideal but miles better than the execrable Silent Stan